Speaking at the time, Asos E-commerce Director James Hart said: “We decided to take a considered approach to releasing these first apps, so that their foundations were rock-solid, thereby allowing us to now develop and improve the experiences at pace.”

For the first time, IMRG, the trade association for global e-retail, recognised an individual among all the companies with the Outstanding Contribution to e-Commerce Award.

Brian McBride, former Managing Director of Amazon UK, was honoured for the role he performed in ensuring that Amazon continues to set benchmarks for all online retailers and overseeing multiple innovations during his time there.

McBride stepped down from his role with the pure-play e-tailer in January due to illness and was succeeded by Christopher North.

Other winners at the event include John Lewis for Best Multichannel Retailer, which last week announced that online sales for the week ending October 1st 2011were ahead of last year by 14 per cent.

The awards saw an increase of over 20 per cent in submissions on 2010, highlighting the growing importance of online offerings in the sector.